2 Cousins Killed in Accident After Leading Police on High-Speed Chase

Family members on Wednesday said they are at a loss to explain why two cousins, described as polite and honest young men, led police on a high-speed chase from Oxnard to Ventura that ended with a crash that took their lives.

Alex Navarro of Port Hueneme, the 21-year-old driver of the car, and passenger Ramon Casarez, 24, of Oxnard had only minor run-ins with the law, and neither had outstanding warrants.

But when an Oxnard police patrol car tried to pull over Navarro’s white Camaro on Tuesday night for driving without headlights on Saviers Road, the young man floored it, police said, beginning a chase that at times exceeded 100 mph.

“These are good, hard-working, loving boys,” said Leticia Nevarez, their cousin. “If something triggered Alex to run away from the police, it must have been a doggone good reason.”

Navarro sped north on Oxnard Boulevard onto the Ventura Freeway about 9:35 p.m., where three California Highway Patrol officers took over the pursuit. In Ventura, the Camaro exited at San Jon Road.

The car blew past stop signs and traffic lights and maintained a speed of about 100 mph, officers said.

While traveling east on Main Street, Navarro tried to turn in the road near Lemon Grove Avenue, but drifted to the right onto a dirt shoulder. Officers said Navarro over corrected, causing the Camaro to spin out of control and slam into a street sign and two palm trees near Mills Road before the passenger side smashed into a parked tractor.

Navarro and Casarez were ejected through the Camaro’s open T-top. The men were pronounced dead at the scene.

But families said the police depiction of two men driving recklessly through city streets to escape pursuing officers sounds nothing like the two young cousins they knew and loved.

“If they were troublemakers, then we would expect this kind of thing,” Nevarez said. “But that’s not them. My father kept saying, ‘Something’s not right here. This has to be a dream and we have to wake up.’ ”

Both men still lived at home with their families. And on Wednesday afternoon, both houses were filled with grieving relatives.

They were the sons of immigrants, whose grandparents moved to Ventura County from Mexico to start a better life. Both were born here. Each was one of six siblings.

“They were very involved in their families,” Refugio Casarez, Ramon’s father, said in Spanish. “They both did what any normal Mexican family would do--they stuck . . . together until the end.”

Both loved to play the sport they considered to be the quintessential all-American game--baseball. Casarez was a shortstop and played for a men’s adult league. His father was the coach. Navarro played left field.

And when Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire were battling it out for the home run record last season, Navarro and Casarez followed the rivalry with great passion, relatives recalled.

They also played in a band called Sendero, meaning “a path.” Casarez was the bass player, Navarro helped with sound checks and setting up instruments. They chimed out tunes at nearly every family gathering, relatives said.

Casarez’s death was especially sad since the young man, married less than a year, leaves behind his wife and a 1-month-old girl, the family said.

Recently Navarro had come through some tragedy, losing a girlfriend last month to cancer, according to family members. But he seemed to be holding up, continuing to involve himself in family activities, even showing up for regular baseball games.

“These are quiet kids,” said baseball teammate and friend Mike Peeke, 32, of Oxnard. “It’s always ‘Yes, sir,’ ‘No, sir.’

“I heard about this and it just didn’t make sense. All of it, it doesn’t make sense.”